


Welcome on board the Wraith

by memoriesoflastwords



Category: Six of Crows Series - Leigh Bardugo
Genre: Grishaverse, Grishaverse Mini Bang 2020, Other, captain inej
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-03
Updated: 2020-05-03
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:22:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,830
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23983747
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/memoriesoflastwords/pseuds/memoriesoflastwords
Summary: A new Grisha girl gets onboard the Wraith after an attack led against a slaver ship.
Kudos: 3
Collections: Grishaverse Big Bang 2020





	Welcome on board the Wraith

The Wraith couldn’t avoid moving, shifting weight side to side and following the rhythm of the surrounding sea. Yet, she now had to stay put, to wait until everyone was on board, a loyal mount to its knight. And since the mission had turned out to be more of a bloodshed than expected, the wait was long.  
She had been the first to go back on the ship, her long dark hair pulled loose as it hadn’t been when she had left, her knives - Sankta, Sankta. The Wraith could imagine Captain Inej’s tongue twirling around the words - covered in fresh, deep red blood. She had snarled some orders, not out of anger, but out of hurry. Despite the slavers being dead or hurt, or tied, or not a danger for the girls, the Captain still wanted them back to the safety of the Wraith. And when every Suli, Kerch, Shu, Fjerdan and Zemeni was back, the Wraith could feel a new weight, a new shifting, a new slow and unsure pacing. A new girl was on board, and she was no Sankta, for sure.  
«Come.»  
The Wraith knew the voice of the Shu girl who had talked and shifted her weight, presumably to urge the new one inside - in the Captain’s office - or simply in the kitchen for some hot soup.  
«You’re safe now.»  
It had been fast. So fast the Wraith hadn’t even noticed at first. The Shu girl had taken hold of the new girl’s wrist, and the next thing the Wraith felt was pain. The pain of the crow’s nest falling from the mainmast, and onto the main deck. The pain of the wood screeching and bending and blowing up in chippings. Tidemaker or Fabrikator? The Wraith couldn’t tell. It was easy to tell the girl was Grisha - powerful, and scared. Dangerous, as all scared little things with power are.  
«What is going on up here?»  
The girl hadn’t been quick enough. She could’ve struck and run - but now she stood still, trapped under a young Heartrender’s will, and the Captain’s look. The Captain had been fast to go back on the deck and deciding how to intervene in the Wraith’s damage. She had only given the new girl a look. Then, she had left her waiting.  
«I need a Fabrikator to put the crow’s nest back in its place,» she said, her dark hair newly put up in a braid. «Does anybody need to see a Healer? Orghana?»  
The Shu girl, Orghana, shook her head. «I’m alright,» she said, looking back at the newcomer. «I just wish you had told us she was dangerous cargo».  
«No cargo is dangerous if you know how to handle it,» the Captain moved towards the Grisha girl, as the Heartender’s grip on her relaxed. «What happened? What was going on when she snapped?»  
Orghana opened her mouth, closed it back in reasoning. Then she spoke: «I was pushing her onto the Wraith.»  
«Pushing her,» the Captain was now at arm’s length from the Grisha girl. With a sign of her hand, she ordered the Heartrender to slowly let go. «Violently?»  
«No,» Orghana appeared to be horrified at the thought only. «I took her by the shoulder. Told her she was safe.»  
«But she attacked,» Orghana nodded, and Inej’s eyes moved to meet the Grisha, still held down at the Heartender’s will. «You’re among friends, here. If you promise to not try to hurt us I will let you go. Then you can have food, water, and some dry clothes. How does it sound?»  
Suspicious, Orghana said nothing, simply moving a few steps away, fingers on her knife. Everything seemed to be going fine, and the Grisha girl seemed to be on the brink of surrender when she raised her hands, freed from the Heartrender's grip. Water rose against the ship's sides, making her tilt so violently that the Shu girl feared her Captain might finally lose her balance. The Captain moved and took hold of the Grisha girl. Had she been older, stronger, and totally in control of her power, her being touched might not have affected the tides in any way. But it did. Inej wavered, but never lost her balance; the crew managed to put the sails back in their original position.  
«Clumsy, a bit violent, unpredictable, and a Tidemaker. Exactly what we needed on the Wraith,» the Captain spoke as the Grisha girl shook from terror and rage. «Give her something to eat if she wants, and send her to me. Until she sets foot in my room, she’s your responsibility, Orghana,» before the Shu could accept the task, the Captain vanished.  
Word passed amongst the crew, she was as much of a shadow as nightmares were.

Two hours had passed on the decks of the Wraith. Orghana had tried it all - watering the Grisha’s chapped lips, detangling her hair, feeding her directly, leaving her some food nearby and stepping aside. Orghana knew Grisha could be wild. She knew better than to fight a Heartrender. She now knew it was best to stay away from the new Grisha, too, waiting for the moment when she was calm enough to meet the Captain.  
«What if she doesn’t eat anytime soon?» Orghana reached for Mbali, a Zemeni born girl with a head covered in little braids. «What should I tell the Captain if she decides to starve herself to death?»  
«I don’t think she will,» Mbali lowered herself on her tiptoes, looking at the Grisha. «I think she’s waiting for us to turn our backs on her. To free her hands so she can turn us into fish food. Ryuu saw sharks a few hours ago.»  
Orghana bent down as well in order to get on Mbali’s eye.  
«Sharks. Is that what you want to do, Grisha? Kill us when all we did was free you from slavers?» she moved her fingers to touch the Grisha’s chin. Next thing she knew, her index finger was bleeding, bitten to the bone. «Damn it!»  
The Grisha’s teeth were covered in blood as she smiled. «That’s what you call freedom, Shu?» she spoke for the first time, spitting on the deck. «Having your wrists tied, feeling anger but not being able to fight or flee, going from a slaver ship to another?»  
«The Captain is no slaver, you fool,» Mbali held Orghana's hand, using her clothes to clean the blood off her hand and check on the bite. «You can leave whenever you want to.»  
«Perfect. Because I want to leave as soon as we reach harbor,» the Grisha tried to get up, but the Wraith was moving too fast, caressed by tides and surrounded by sharks  
Orghana stuck her finger into her mouth, sucking off the possible infection. «Mbali tells the truth, but your leaving isn’t our choice to make. The Captain is still waiting for you».  
The Grisha’s look was fierce. «Then bring me to her at last. I’m not eating until I know where I’m headed to and whose hands my freedom lies in.»  
Orghana and Mbali exchanged looks. The Captain had wanted the Grisha to be fed and calm before being brought into her room, but the new girl had other ideas. And she appeared not to be interested in changing her mind.  
«Fine,» the Shu shook her head. «On your feet. We’re going.»  
«No need. I grew tired of waiting soon enough.» Inej spoke.  
They hadn’t heard her coming. Not Orghana, not Mbali with her fine hearing, not even the Grisha, scared as she was. But, again, the Captain was daughter to the shadows and the legends.  
«Moreover,» the Captain took her cap off, eyes wandering and hair flowing, «I totally forgot to eat last night, and now my room smells like fish.»  
Mbali let out a giggle, followed by Orghana, whose laugh was so loud she put a hand on her mouth not to let it echo. That was usual - the Captain had a bird’s appetite.  
Inej’s eyes were on Orghana. «What happened to your hand?»  
«I got bitten,» Orghana knew better than to lie. The Captain always appeared to know when a crew member was omitting something. Her mouth was open again, but the Grisha girl spoke first.  
«I bit her,» she said. «I had to.»  
«You had to?» the Shu girl’s eyes widened.  
«You had to,» the Captain repeated. «I’m guessing she was, once more, trying to touch you.»  
«I-»  
«Silence, Orghana. Give the Grisha time to speak.»  
The Grisha girl gave a nod. «She was trying to get a hold of my face.»  
«A pity,» the Captain’s head went down in a tilt. «You don’t like being touched. You don’t like the feeling of vulnerability that comes with someone’s skin on yours.»  
When the Grisha didn’t deny, the Captain gave away a quick smile. A sad smile, the one of a woman in wait. Orghana knew the story of the Wraith and the Bastard of the Barrel. Raised in Ketterdam, there was no way for her not to. But again, she knew better than to speak.  
«I know a man who is just like you,» when the Captain spoke, the Grisha’s head twitched. «A man I cannot touch. If you decide to stay, I assure you won’t have to wear any armor. I assure you no one will try and hurt you with a touch.»  
The Grisha hadn’t realized her wrists were now free once more. «Why should I stay?»  
She expected a grand promise of plans and missions but the Captain’s words promised no more than the truth. «Because I really need a Tidemaker and, for what I see, you make a great one,» the woman called Captain, called Wraith, called shadow, was smiling with the sweetness of a mother. «Because if you stay, you can always leave. But until you decide to, you’re safe and fed and amongst friends.»  
«Can I know your names, before I decide what to do?» ferocious as she had been while stepping on board of the Wraith, the Grisha was now cautious, but her posture was growing less and less stiff.  
The Shu, took her healing finger off her mouth. «Orghana,» she said, «but you already know.»  
«And I’m Mbali,» she looked bright as the sun, eyes wide the way they always were when a new member was about to join their crew.  
«My name is Inej Ghafa,» it was then the Captain’s turn. There was something in the way she spoke her name, a solemnity.  
The Grisha girl allowed herself to smile. «Sounds better than “Wraith”,» she said, «I’m Nastya».  
«Sounds better than “Grisha girl”, don’t you think?», Inej smiled. Normally, she would’ve held out her hand, waited for the girl to grasp it. This time she simply lowered her forehead in a nod as if to greet the dark figure waiting for her in Ketterdam. I missed having you in my life. I’m happy to have you on board. «Welcome on board the Wraith».

**Author's Note:**

> This was my entry for the Grishaverse Mini Bang 2020, hosted during the month of April while waiting for the actual Bang to start!
> 
> If you liked this, consider buying me a coffee on ko-fi.com/memoriesoflastwords or simply leave some kudos and comments: they mean a lot!


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